Rishabh Mohnot

Rishabh is a fourth year law student at the National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata. He is currently the Director of the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Society at his University and a Senior Associate Member of the NUJS Law Review. He is happy to correspond by email at [email protected]

In their latest efforts to stop the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) from pursuing a patent for Xtandi, the Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM) is sending an e-mail petition to Janet Napolitano, the President of University of California. This attempt comes after UAEM made a representation before the Regents of the University of California for a third time, demanding that Xtandi be made more accessible in India. Xtandi has an eventful if not long history of controversies in…

SpicyIP has been bustling with activity this week, with posts on diverse areas and active engagement from our readers. Thematic Highlight In another post in the ongoing series on the plant variety regime in India, Prof. N.S. Gopalakrishnan discusses farmers’ varieties in the Indian regime. He notes that there are discrepancies in the individual or people that can apply for registration of a farmer’s variety under the legislation. He further notes that the legislation does not provide clear guidance for…

Thematic Highlight Prof. Basheer and Pankhuri provided a critical analysis of the National IPR Policy 2016. They note that the policy is not worth celebrating, since it largely endorses dogmatic views of IPR and lacks the creativity necessary for a robust policy framework. They do, however, point out that the policy has done well to recognise the importance of open-access works and rewarding innovation through prizes and awards. They provide excerpts of their recently published paper, which provides the first…

On July 13, 2018, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) released a circular announcing the ‘Intellectual Property Talent Search Examination 2018’. Launched jointly by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASSOCHAM) and Ericsson, the talent search will reward high school students (Class 9-12) and undergraduate students who score well on the online examination. The objective of this test is to spread awareness about IPR by sensitising the youth and fostering innovation amongst them. This is in furtherance…

In Gillette Company LLC vs. Tigaksha Metallics Private Ltd, the Delhi High Court recently passed an order deciding to extend an ex-parte injunction restraining the defendant from infringing the plaintiff’s mark. Interestingly, the decision in favour of the plaintiff hinged a lot on psychological theories, about associative thinking and memory retrieval, read and endorsed by the judge. Background The plaintiff, Gillette, instituted a suit against two defendants, Tigaksha Metallics Private Limited and Supermax Personal Care Private Limited, seeking a permanent…

We have had another eventful week at the blog. Thematic Highlight Our thematic highlight for this week came from a guest post by Dr Balakrishna Pisupati, who wrote on the strict interpretation of the Biological Diversity Act 2002 and associated rules, which has resulted in a number of people falling foul of the legislation’s penal provisions. Dr Pisupati highlighted the dissonance in the provisions on access to genetic resources and benefit sharing which have been interpreted by the Indian Govt….

We have had an eventful fortnight at the blog: Thematic Highlight For our thematic highlight, we had a guest post from Prof. N.S. Gopalakrishnan. In the first of a series of posts, he writes about the problems in the Indian plant variety regime. In this post, he argues that the ‘enclosure movement’ in extant and farmers’ varieties is resulting in commonly available varieties being monopolised by private players. This has resulted in the plant variety regime working against the farmers since it reduces their…

On July 4, 2018, the Union Cabinet approved the proposal to accede to the WIPO Copyright Treaty, 1996 (‘WCT’) and the WIPO Performance and Phonograms Treaty, 1996 (‘WPPT’). These treaties are part of a series of international instruments created by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (‘WIPO’) to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world. They are commonly referred to as the ‘WIPO Internet Treaties’ due to their emphasis on protection of rights in a digital environment. While India…

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Leading IP Academics Fired

This protest petition against unfair dismissals of Prof. N. S. Gopalakrishnan, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) Chair Professor at Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) and Prof. Yogesh Pai, MHRD Chair Professor at National Law University at Jodhpur, is now closed.

It was posted on SpicyIP blog on August 28, 2013 by Prof. Shamnad Basheer. Link to petition here: http://spicyipindia.blogspot.in/2013/08/leading-ip-academics-fired-protest.html